A Beggar Man

This statuette representing a beggar man, a pair to one of a beggar woman (A.12-1949) was previously thought to have been made Dresden in about 1730-1750.

It is reminiscent of Dresden ivory statuettes of beggars of the eighteenth century, many of which are in the Grünes Gewölbe, Dresden. These firgures may have had as their ultimate source the earlier engravings by Jacques Callot (1592/3-1635). Formerly such pieces used to be attributed to the Dresden artist Wilhelm Krüger (1680-1756), to whom the present statuettes of a beggar man and a beggar woman were attributed at the time of their acquisition. However there is no evidence Krüger worked in ivory. It is far more likely that the figures in the V&A were actually made in Dieppe ivories in the mid-nineteenth century.